Abstract: To investigate heavy metal pollution character of vegetables and to assess its human health risk in Taiyuan city, a survey was conducted to detect the contents of heavy metals in 130 samples of 15 kinds of vegetables that were collected from the markets of Taiyuan City. These heavy metals values were valuated subsequently according to national hygiene standard methods. Heavy metal pollution of vegetables was assessed with Nemerow index and single-factor index respectively. Human health risks from heavy metals in vegetables were valued according to the standards of International Commission on Radio logical Protection(ICRP). The results showed that the standard-exceeding ratio of Pb in lettuce, cabbage and leek was 43.8%, 33.3% and 5.6% respectively, the standard-exceeding ratio of Cd in lettuce and cabbage was 75% and 25% respectively. The contamination of lettuce belonged to light level, celery and cabbage belonged to alert level, and others belonged to safety level, the following order: Pb>Cd>Cr>Zn>Cu. The average annual risks of health hazards caused by intake of vegetables per person among Taiyuan residents were 7.14×10-6 person/year for Cd, 6.20×10-5 person/year for Cr, 2.34×10-8person/year for Pb, 7.92×10-8 for Cu and 4.40×10-9 for Zn. Human health risks from heavy metals in vegetables in Taiyuan City were mainly caused by chemical carcinogens Cr. The individual health risk of heavy metal pollution was higher than the standard of ICRP.